Africa and some of the world’s foremost innovators in technology and finance will converge in Cape Town, South Africa next week at the SingularityU Conference

by MTHULISI SIBANDAJOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – SOME of the world’s foremost innovators in technology and finance will converge in South Africa next week as part of efforts to future-proof the continent into the fourth industrial revolution.

They will meet under the aegis of the inaugural Exponential Finance Summit, organised by SingularityU South Africa, in collaboration with partners Development Bank of Southern Africa, Deloitte and MTN.

SingularityU South Africa has announced more speakers to the programme for the inaugural summit, which will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on May 29 and 30.

“As part of our journey in future-proofing Africa, we are thrilled to have added more incredible speakers to the lineup for our Exponential Finance Summit. We feel a great sense of pride to be bringing these world class experts and thinking to our South African shores,” said Shayne Mann, co-Chief Executive Officer of SingularityU South Africa.

Co-CEO of SingularityU South Africa, Mic Mann, said through the Exponential Finance Summit, they hoped to facilitate meaningful networking connections on a global scale, encourage ideas that could change the financial world, stimulate the South African economy and
kickstart a strong venture capital ecosystem.

“Impact is the currency of the future and these new speakers promise to add exactly that,” Mann said.

Glynn is the co-founder and General Counsel of MobileCoin, a company that provides private, mobile and digital cash payment systems. His talk will address privacy in the world of exponential data.

Kallner, currently the CEO for Discovery Life, and overseeing the group’s Marketing and Distribution, will address the convergence between banking and insurance.

Wierzycka is known for her strong anti-corruption corporate activism in South Africa. She is in high demand domestically and internationally as a speaker on the topic of ethical corporate leadership.

Malinga, who recently returned from Silicon Valley, is part of the Singularity University South Africa faculty with a focus on Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data.

Managing Director of SqwidNet, Malinga is responsible for building an IoT connectivity business in South Africa in partnership with International IoT giant SIGFOX.

In addition to his CEO role, he oversees the solutions division for SqwidNet, a fully-owned subsidiary of Dark Fibre Africa.

As a member of the South African Singularity University faculty, Rosman specializes in machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics and automation.

He is a principal researcher in the Mobile Intelligent Autonomous Systems group at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa.

Rob Nail, CEO and associate founder of Singularity University, said, “We expect that these two days will incite and inspire action that will lead to breakthroughs in Africa’s economy.

– CAJ News

]]>http://cajnewsafrica.com/2019/05/24/inaugural-summit-readies-africa-for-industry-4-0/feed/0‘Business as usual for Huawei in South Africa’http://cajnewsafrica.com/2019/05/24/business-as-usual-for-huawei-in-south-africa/
http://cajnewsafrica.com/2019/05/24/business-as-usual-for-huawei-in-south-africa/#commentsFri, 24 May 2019 03:55:39 +0000http://cajnewsafrica.com/?p=30680

Huawei Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ren Zhengfei

by SAVIOUS KWINIKAJOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – HUAWEI, which is contending with a ban from the United States (US), said it had for some time been working to mitigate the impact of the ban on its clients in South Africa.

In a statement, the technology company and smartphone maker, said in South Africa, it would “continue to serve all our customers and partners with the same focus and dedication as before, and contribute to the ICT sector with vigour, as the fourth industrial revolution is a key economic focus for growth and social development.”

It pledged to continue providing security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products, covering those that had been sold and that were still in stock globally.

“We will continue to build a safe and sustainable software ecosystem, in order to provide the best experience for all users globally.”

In an interview with a local media house on Wednesday, Huawei Vice President of Corporate Communications, Glenn Schloss, said their devices were “completely unaffected” by restrictions in the US.

“For owners of Huawei handsets in South Africa it will be business as usual,” Schloss said.

He said the company remained positive and preparing for various eventualities.

“We are stockpiling components and have been working with our supply-chain partners for some time,” Schloss assured.

In an interview with Chinese media this week, Huawei Founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, was also bold.

“We will certainly be able to continue serving our customers. Our production capacity is huge, and adding Huawei to the Entity List won’t have a huge impact on us. We are making progress in bidding worldwide,” Zhengfei said.

Zhengfei highlighted in the first quarter of this year, Huawei’s revenue grew 39 percent over the same period last year.

“This rate decreased to 25 percent in April, and may continue decreasing towards the end of this year. But the US ban will not lead to negative growth or harm the development of our industry,” he said.

by AKANI CHAUKEJOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – SOUTH African consumers must know the relevant provider to contact in the event of problems usually come with a maturing market in the country’s high-speed broadband internet sector.

It has been hailed a model of consumer choice, with consumers able to choose from a variety of internet service providers (ISPs) providing access and other services over the open-access fibre networks being rolled out across the country.

“When it comes to the provision of FTTH (Fibre-to-the-Home) infrastructure and services, the consumer needs to know who to contact when things go awry to get the best out of lightning-fast, fibre-based broadband,” said Graham Beneke, ISP Association (ISPA) chairperson.

The local fibre industry is compromised of one layer operated by network operators and another layer operated by ISPs.

This differentiation effectively supports current macroeconomic policy aimed at driving down Internet access costs through fewer capital-intensive networks and more competition-boosting ISPs.

Beneke said the downside of this two-layer FTTH model is that ISPs did not always have the power to fix problems consumers experience in receiving services because these may arise at the network level and be within the control of the network operator.

When things go wrong, end-users will typically only ever deal with their ISP. This relationship begins when consumers see fibre being trenched in their neighbourhood.

ISPA advised it was up to the consumer to do their research and select one of South Africa’s many competing ISPs to order high-speed Internet delivered via fibre optic cable.

Some problems in the market could include the network operator changing its coverage area, fibre breaks and inferior fibre install.

ISP cannot fix these issues because they are entirely within the control of the network operator.

“While ISPs will always act in the best interests of their customers, patience and understanding are sometimes required while a service issue is escalated to the appropriate party,” Beneke concluded.

by MTHULISI SIBANDAJOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – MTN has, because of customer concerns, reversed its intention to make an automatic 1MB universal bundle available to customers when their bundles expire.

The initial move was in accordance with the additional changes brought about by Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), a day prior to the implementation of the amended End User and Subscriber Service Charter (EUSSC).

The aim of the automatic 1MB universal bundle was to ensure that customers would remain connected and would have avoided customers being cut off mid-session.

“Our customers have made it clear that they do not want the automatic bundle option and we have therefore taken the decision not to implement the change,” said Mapula Bodibe, MTN SA Executive: Consumer Business Unit.

She said they remained committed to compliance and respect both the intention and spirit of the regulations and laws that govern the sector.

“We have also heard the concerns raised by our customers in response to this proposed offering,” explained Bodibe.

She said the automatic bundle was designed to better serve customers’ connectivity needs and at low rate.

“Currently, all customers that have not actively chosen to opt into OOB usage remain blocked from using OOB data, as per MTN’s implementation of the EUSSC regulations in February this year.

MTN on Friday implemented an improved and simplified OOB menu on the USSD short code *135*6#.

The updated menu offers customers two simple choices, to either opt-in or to opt-out of OOB usage and they can block and unblock this functionality, as they choose.

by TINTSWALO BALOYIJOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE delivery of basic services in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province is set for a major improvement following a partnership between a technology group and a government agency to deliver much-needed broadband services to public facilities.

Liquid Telecom South Africa, part of the leading pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, has concluded the agreement with State Information Technology Agency (SITA).

Broadband services will be available in hospitals, schools, clinics and provincial offices.

The partnership with SITA and Eastern Cape administration will connect 2 700 government facilities initially with 100 Mbps and increasing in the majority of these sites to 1 Gbps.

“Having the opportunity to start connecting the least connected province in South Africa is an honour for us,” said Reshaad Sha, Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Telecom South Africa.

He said for the first time Liquid Telecom will be contributing directly to enhanced service delivery in the Eastern Cape.

“The high-speed network services that we will deliver as part of this project will be a key enabler in the delivery of e-education; e-health and a plethora of e-government services through the facilities that will now be connected,” Sha said.

Ntutule Tshenye, the Acting CEO of SITA, said this connectivity would serve as a key enabler for the Eastern Cape Government.

“The partnership also aims to demonstrate that it is possible to deploy pervasive high-speed broadband in a rural province so as to ensure that the objectives of SA Connect are met,” Tshenye said.

by SAVIOUS KWINIKA JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – SOME 8 000 rhinoceros have been killed- including 508 last year- since the start of the poaching epidemic a decade ago.

This makes South Africa one of the most hostile for the endangered species, with one of the highest poaching rates in the world.

With the world now revolving around technology, it is anticipated a new partnership can at least address the menace after failure of previous measures.

The new innovative security measure has been introduced in the Eastern Cape Province to coincide with the just-concluded commemorations of the Earth Day, which is celebrated around the world to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

Mobile network operator, Vodacom, and Celcom, a distributor of mobile accessories, have partnered to roll out the initiative at the Addo Elephant National Park, which also shelters rhinos.

This includes the provision of mobile devices that have been programmed with an application software (Cmore) to help protect the park from poachers.

The smartphones have been enabled with real-time tracking of rangers out in the veld which is crucial in protecting their safety and security.

The application also allows rangers to enter information such as poaching incidents, poacher sightings, carcass locations or logging a patrol.

John Adendorff, the national park’s Conservation Manager, said the technology was handy as ranger teams need the ability to detect events, follow forces in the field, collaborate between one another and receive rapid feedback.

He explained the more enabled cell-phones would be issued per two-man patrol and will be switched on automatically to monitor the rangers’ positions, who were able to plot any incidents they come across in the field on the system.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) developed the application that is based on modern web and mobile technology.

Travis Goate, Vodacom Eastern region executive head of sales and marketing, said the partnership is a perfect demonstration of the transformative power of technology.

He said technology could play a key role in the protection of the planet.

“In addition, we have aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which we use to guide our efforts in social upliftment and environmental protection programmes,” Goate added.

Earth Day is celebrated annually on April 22. This year’s edition was marked under the theme, “Protect our Species.”

It aims to draw attention to the rapid extinction of species in the world today, which is directly linked to human activities. These include deforestation, habitat loss, trafficking and poaching, unsustainable agriculture, pollution and use of pesticides.

by SAVIOUS KWINIKAJOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – HUAWEI, Ericsson and Nokia have emerged as the top three global 5G radio access network (RAN) vendors.

This is according to a report by Strategy Analytics, a global technology and media analyst agency.

Huawei is ranked as the leader in terms of equipment performance, portfolio of radio access network products, contribution to industry standards, research and development (R&D) investment and delivery capabilities.

According to the report made available to CAJ News titled “Comparison and 2023 5G Global Market Potential for leading 5G RAN Vendors – Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia”, the three global vendors are leading in commercializing 5G, and compared with other vendors, Huawei’s 5G network is faster and lower latency.

The figure is 1,38 Gbit/s for Ericsson and 1,15 Gbit/s for Nokia.

In the air interface latency test, the test results of Ericsson and Nokia are 3,5 ms and 3,8 ms respectively.

Huawei’s user plane delay is 2 ms. In the standalone (SA) scenario, Huawei’s peak downlink rate of a single cell reaches 14,58 Gbit/s, which is nearly three times that of Ericsson.

Nokia has not completed the test.

In announcing its results for the first quarter of 2019, last week, Huawei disclosed it had signed 40 commercial contracts for 5G with leading global carriers and had shipped more than 70 000 5G base stations to markets worldwide.

The results show that the company’s Q1 sales rose 39 percent from a year earlier to US$26,7 billion (R374.4 billion), and its net profit margin was about 8 percent, slightly higher than last year.

African girls join the world to commemorate the Girls in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

from ADANE BIKILA in Addis Ababa, EthiopiaADDIS ABABA, (CAJ News) – THE international community is celebrating the Girls in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Day, marked annually on the fourth Thursday in April.

More than 170 countries will commemorate the day initiated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The main ITU event in the continent is at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Around 260 school-age girls from Addis Ababa and across the African continent will participate.

During the course of the coming 12 months, ITU will follow their journey through a series of short documentaries focusing on their daily activities, dreams and the importance of ICTs in their lives and future.

The second coding bootcamp of the African Girls Can Code Initiative 2018-2022, an initiative of ITU, UN Women and the African Union Commission, is ongoing in South Africa. The camp comprises courses on digital literacy, coding and personal development skills, including entrepreneurial knowledge.

Through 18 coding camps, the African Girls Can Code programme is expected to reach more than 2 000 girls by 2022.

In addition, this year ITU has selected girls from Eswatini, Ethiopia and Tanzania to become role models and young spokespersons for the ongoing Girls in ICT campaign.

The special focus on Africa recognizes the enormous potential for leveraging ICTs to drive economic growth and development and accelerate progress towards all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

As well as having the lowest rate of internet penetration, Africa has the widest digital gender gap in the world with only 18,6 percent of women using the Internet, compared with 24,9 percent of men.

Openserve, the integrated communications company, said it was still assessing the extent of the damage to infrastructure in KZN.

Damage has been reported on buildings, indoor and outdoor core and access network infrastructure.

Overhead cables have also been affected. Tree are waterlogged.

Lightning has also caused damage to the cable network and customer premise equipment.

“We are proactively monitoring all critical sites to minimise service interruptions and are doing our utmost to restore services in affected areas as soon as possible,” said Alphonzo Samuels, Openserve’s Chief Executive Officer.

He lamented the inconvenience disconnection of its services brought to clients and customers.

“We will therefore be on extra high alert during this period, mobilising all available technicians to work additional hours if needs be,” Samuels said.

by MTHULISI SIBANDAAfrica EditorJOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – TECHNOLOGY will continue to help solve South Africa’s myriad of challenges but that will depend on local companies’ success in automating the information and communications technology (ICT) systems.

This is according to an industry executive, Riaan van Stryp, who maintained confidence technology would address such issues as crime and enhance economic growth.

“From anti-crime cameras deployed with great effect in our cities, to world-class computational systems that ensure we run better elections than much of the developed world, ICT is becoming the bedrock of our society upon which future SA growth will be based,” he said.

Van Stryp is the General Manager of ICTGlobe, a telecommunications network company.

He nonetheless said much of this growth would depend on local companies automating their ICT systems.

“By automating, you’re essentially freeing up human resources to focus on their own growth and development,” van Stryp explained.

Automating is to make a process in a factory or office operate by machines or computers, in order to reduce the amount of work done by humans and the time taken to do the work.

Van Stryp said automating the ordering system frees up the sales team to focus on customer service and training new resellers to focus on the sale of services without getting tied up in manual processes.

“Machines can process while humans can focus on after-sales client happiness,” the executive said.

He said business automation was the catalyst to upskill entry-level staff.

Why have a human being repeatedly undertaking the same routine tasks when a machine will do, leaving the person to be developed by the organisation into a much more valuable, and fulfilled, resource?” van Stryp asked.